


Too Late

by Way_too_involved



Series: Langst Prompts [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Dark Shiro (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Krolia is an awesome Mom, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Langst, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Season/Series 06, Space Mom Allura (Voltron), briefly, klangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 09:11:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15191531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Way_too_involved/pseuds/Way_too_involved
Summary: Lance volunteers to go with Shiro after the incident during the Shield Fixing Mission.----After a heart to heart with his mother, Keith finally comes back with a warning expecting everything to be the same, but things were far from what he expected.





	Too Late

Lance thought about their luck so far.

Lotor was helping them do more good than they did in months, Shiro has been getting better at being accustomed to being safe and he hadn’t yelled or fought with anyone so far, Pidge and Hunk upped the castle’s defences and ZARKON WAS DEAD. So yeah… they were doing pretty good.

Their new mission was a generic mission of help reclaim the planet from the Galra, which they did on daily bases now, so their odds were pretty good and he was paired with Shiro. They only way this could get any better was for Keith to suddenly show up after all these weeks of absence; he wouldn’t admit it to save his life but he missed the ex-black paladin more than he might ever admit.

Lance stood back to allow everyone some space as stood around the holoscreen that showed blueprints of the planet. He added a few notes here and there that only he, a sniper, can notice but otherwise left the planning to the Black Paladin, Lotor and Allura.

“Since we are splitting up…” He raised his hand like he was at class, to lighten the stressful mood. “I think I should go with Shiro.”

“Why do you think that, Lance?” Allura inquired.

“Well, remember our last mission? The one with the Shield Plates? Pidge almost couldn’t handle Shiro on her own since she is smaller in size and Hunk has to go with her on this mission… I thought maybe it would be better if I went with Shiro this time just in case.”

“I am not saying something is wrong with you, Shiro. I just want to minimise any possible setbacks… not that you are a setback but even you noticed that you’re not acting the same and you have to understand where I am coming from with this, right?” He added before anyone could object.

“You are right.” Shiro said with a smile. “I have not been feeling like myself and your help would be much needed if something more drastic was to happen.”

“Well it’s settled then.” Allura looked around her team with determination and admiration. “Lotor and I, Pidge and Hunk, Shiro and Lance while Coran stays in the castle for back up. Everyone to their Lions!!”

Lance smiled all the way to the Red Lion’s hanger. It wasn’t that his ideas were usually ignored; it’s that he has been thinking about this ever since his conversation with Shiro during the power cut. He did seem significantly better and have apologised to what he did but it doesn’t erase the fact that Shiro would never do any of this normally.

They flew in almost perfect formation and made it to the planet in record time with no hurdles in their way. They split up in the air and went in different direction to their designated positions. After landing at the nearest clearing he and Shiro could find, they left their lions, who raised their particle barriers, and made their way to the commission up ahead. They walked stealthily shoulder to shoulder with their weapons drawn to any possible danger.

“I know I’ve been acting different… I’m sorry” Shiro said, voice cracking at the apology. It worried Lance how vulnerable the Black Paladin seemed the last few weeks.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’ve been through so much and you’re allowed to not be okay for a while.”

They kept walking after that till they reached the town and that’s when they started firing at the Galran soldiers. Lotor told them these soldiers chose to follow Zarkon’s rule and were now following any general that spoke of the same goals. Overall, they were awful people and he didn’t feel bad.

As the battle raged on, Lance’s stamina started to decrease substantially. He muscles were sore and his moves were slowly turning sluggish.

“Shiro, I think we underestimated their numbers at this sector.” He yelled over the sounds of the shit he was firing, the ratio of him missing the mark was steadily increasing.

“It’s okay Lance. We can do this.”

“No we can’t, SHIRO!” He was getting annoyed from the increasing headache. He looked at Shiro and noticed his fighting style was completely different. He moves were more aggressive. Shiro wasn’t just hitting for the sake of the mission, he was hitting for the sake of utter destruction.

Upon further inspection Shiro’s face looked normal, as normal a face would in a battle to the death, but the closer you looked the more you would notice his lips were moving. He was muttering, repeating the same phrases over and over again.

Lance ducked and shot the sentry that was on him and moved to the next as fast as his tried legs could carry him. He was moving closer to Shiro, afraid that the older paladin was stuck in a flashback of some sort since his time in captivity, ready to help him if he was needed.

“ _I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt hi-“_

Shiro fell to the ground holding his temples and letting out a glass shattering scream. Lance stared at Shiro unsure of what to do before he sprang into action. He kneeled down next to Shiro and moved to place his hand on his back.

Right before his hand made contact with Shiro, he stopped screaming, raised his head and faced Lance. Glowing purple eyes stared back at him instead of the usual coal-black eyes ones and he knew with utmost finality that this was not Shiro.

He trailed back trying to get away from him with every fibre of his being. He wouldn’t admit it but he was the most terrified he had been for a while. This… clone has been walking their halls, eating their food and watching them play and have fun like he was the real Shiro. They trusted him with their secrets and he was clearly being controlled by something, or someone. They have been compromised.

He turned and ran in the direction of the Red Lion, the thought that Black opened up to this Shiro and not Lance played in his mind, adding more fuel to his already beating heart. He almost made it before something grabbed his neck and threw him backwards. He lay on his back, blinking to clear the black spots in his vision as well as to stop the swaying reality infront of him.

“Shiro… C’mon, man.” He pleaded. “Remember when we played monsters and mana, how you said you wanted to be a Paladin? How there is nothing more fulfilling than being one? You are a paladin! One in real life! I don’t who is in there pulling the string but you are a paladin and you have helped so many people.”

His back hit a tree. He had nowhere else to go. He needed to get to him before he does something more serious than a concussion.

“Trying isn’t going to do anything but delay the inevitable, Blue Paladin. You have been a thorn at my side for a while now, pestering me with your talk of nobility and _humanity_. Tell me, what would happen if I was to kill you right now? Who would try to save you?”

The thing took a step closer to Lance, kneeling infront of him before continuing. Lance knew he had to do something but his limbs were frozen with every word.

“I’ll raise you one better, who would care?”

It raised its hand, took off its glove, turning into a laser-like sword and aimed it at Lance’s heart.

“The extra paladin, died in the line of duty to give his place to the real Red Paladin to come back. You were holding the place for Allura in Blue and now for Keith in Red. Just face it. You are just a spare.”

The sword hurt way less than the words. His eyes widened as he felt the sword come out of his back and wedge itself in the bark of the tree behind him. He felt completely hopeless as blood seeped out of his wound and mouth, his brain getting increasingly foggy from the lack of oxygen at the aftermath of his heart being literally penetrated. Shiro removed his sword, deactivated it and walked back to the Black Lion.

Red roared in his mind, he couldn’t help thinking about how bittersweet this mission was; he was glad it was him but was devastated he couldn’t warn them. He prayed to God they could figure it out without anyone else getting hurt and he wished oh so deeply they could tell his family how much he missed and loved them. And Keith?... God, he wanted to see him one last time.

Keith’s lilac eyes were the last thing he thought of as his vision went dark.

 

* * *

 

 

Being away from the team for more than two years gave Keith perspective.

He thought deeply about his teammates, especially since he didn’t know most of them before this whole thing happened. He vaguely remembered Pidge, as Katie of course, from when he would join Shiro during his anti-gravitational training with Matt and Dr. Holt as their incredibly bright sister/daughter would watch with wonder at all the different tech surrounding them.

Hunk he was hundred percent sure he didn’t remember since Keith barely showed up or didn’t really pay attention to any of the theoretical lectures, which were the only ones they had in common with engineers.

Lance on the other hand. Lance he remembered and he remembered well. The loud Hispanic kid who would stand up to the teachers who were unfair to the student with their work distribution for the weekend even if it got Lance detention. Who always risked his neck whenever someone was treated differently, a habit he suspected the Cuban picked up because of his own experiences. Keith heard what the jealous students would call Lance behind his back, all those derogatory racial slurs and insults, but Lance never once let it get to him when someone else might get in trouble.

This behaviour followed him to space. He wasn’t reckless but he prioritised everyone else’s wellbeing over his own regardless of how many times he denied it, it was pretty obvious according to where he stations his lion or how he chooses to cover all of their back but how everyone has a more important job than to cover his back.

Keith caught up with his mother, talking about all they both went through by filling in the blanks of the visions. Keith learned about how his father was before he was hardened by life and Krolia struggled to hear the hardships Keith had to endure in the foster system but didn’t voice. She would smile at how Keith’s eyes would light up when he talked about the Black Paladin and how he was a the ultimate mentor/older brother to him.

With his mother’s help, he was able to figure out a lot of undetermined internal struggles and was able to set them straight. He learned more about his own feelings and what they meant because even though his mother was a Galra, she was still his mother and had years of life experience more than him.

He eventually told her about Lance and how he made him feel. All their interactions, including the memorable one in the bedroom that solidified his decision on leaving, recited word for word because it’s not like they have something better to do.

“Keith I don’t think Lance wanted you to leave Voltron.”

They have been on their trail for about six months now and were both sitting around their fire inside their ‘home’. Spear lay over Keith’s legs as he gently brushed his hair after a long day of playing around.

“He clearly sounded in distress. He needed someone to listen to him; to make him feel like his complains were valid.”

Keith learned in those six months that his mother was way wiser than she seemed.

“What do you mean? That’s exactly what I did.” he was

His mother looked at him unimpressed. “You told him to ‘leave the Math to Pidge.’ Does that sound like reassurance to you?”

He thought about, not like he didn’t for a few weeks after it actually happened, but this time he thought more about how Lance must’ve felt after being told that.

“No. It doesn’t.”

“Exactly. You basically insulted his simple Math skills and the fact that he was thinking about the ultimate fate of the team, including his place. He was suggesting he leaves. Why do you think that is?”

“He said it was because we needed our best soldiers on the team.”

“He clearly doubted himself, Keith.” His mother said that like it was one of the facts of the universe, like she didn’t just change Keith’s entire view on Lance. He didn’t ever think that Lance would be self-conscious or lack even a sliver of self-esteem. He boosted himself too much for that to be true.

“But he is our sharpshooter, a great leader and one of the best people on the team. Why would he ever doubt himself.” He was thinking out loud, not like Krolia could actually answer the question as she never even met the Blue Paladin let alone spent enough time to know his psyche.

“He is neglected.”

 “What?” His eyes widened at that. “What do mean?”

“I just think, from what you told me about Lance and the others, that he has grown distant from his old friends and was seeking you out instead. He doesn’t feel like he is contributing much to the team which was shown by how your ideas are always validated by the Black Paladin but never his. The Green and Yellow Paladins are the brains, as you said, you’re the right hand man and Shiro is the Leader. What is he then?”

Keith could almost physically feel his entire world collapsing in on itself. His mother was able to determine Lance’s entire character and reason behind his words and actions in those six months better than Keith for the last year in space and two years at Garrison. How was he so blind? How was everyone so blind?

They both stayed quiet after that.

* * *

 

Walking through the halls of the castle felt like a dream the entire time he was on the whale-planet and then the whole Altean colony thing happened and it was like the furthest thing from possible reality.

Shiro and Coran were the ones to welcome him to the castle, saying everyone else was busy.

“I don’t understand… even the princess?”

He knew he didn’t have the best relationship with the princess but he did just come in an Altean pod, one that is thousands of years old, he expected the least bit of excitement from Allura.

“Keith… Why don’t you come with me.” Shiro was talking to him as if to an animal that might turn and run away at any sign of sudden movements.

“Keith?” His mother’s voice came from the pod. “Spear really needs to get out of the ship.”

He almost forgot he wasn’t alone with how suspiciously weird the two men were acting.

“Who is that?” Shiro asked, wide eyed.

“I’ve been gone for a while and I have some really big news. Where are the princess and the rest of the team?”

“What kind of news?”

“Why don’t you call everyone here so they can all find out-“

“Just tell us, Keith.” Surprisingly, Coran said.

And Keith was struck with how tired he sounded. The Altean looked like he hadn’t had normal sleep for the past few weeks shown by the bruise-like bags under his eyes and the wrinkled clothes. Shiro’s hair was ruffled, like he wasn’t sleeping on a bed, on the floor if he had to guess, and he was missing a glove.

“What is going on? What happened?”

“You first.”

“Fine, I found out the Lotor has been harvesting Altean quintessence as he hid an entire Altean colony in an interdimensional rift… I also found my mom.”

Just as he said that Krolia, Romelle and Spear came out of the pod and set towards them. His mother had her hand on Spear’s head, probably keeping him in check, while Romelle kept looking everywhere around the castle, probably for Lotor.

He looked back at Shiro and Coran

“Now could you please tell me what is going on because I am assuming the worst and believe me I have developed quite an imagination spending all those years with few people to talk to.”

Shiro walked closer to Keith and raised his hand which was shaking very prominently to his shoulders. A tear made its way down Shiro cheek as he started talking to deliver whatever news he had.

“We were on a mission and we split off; the Princess and Lotor, Pidge and Hunk, Lance and I.”

 Dread was slowly creeping down Keith’s stomach.

“I… He… Lance didn’t make it.”

Keith’s brain short circuited. He heard what Shiro said but he couldn’t comprehend it.

“He got captured? What are you waiting for then? Are you looking ar-“

“He didn’t make IT, KIETH! HE… He didn’t come back and he wasn’t captured.”

Keith was lightheaded, he couldn’t register his mother’s touch to his shoulders or what she was saying, the ground started to sway. He turned and ran. He ran and ran and ran. He ran for what felt like hours but was just a few minutes as he was drawn to Lance’s bedroom. To Lance.

He fumbled with the lock and finally got the door open to stumble inside. His room was exactly as he imagined; clothes in a pile next to the bathroom door, books in Altean with a notebook and two pens next to it, Pidge’s green headphones on the bed with his phone.

He made his way to the bed hoping, no praying, that this was all a joke the rest of the paladins were playing on him for leaving. Where Lance was fine and just taking a shower in their connected showers with all his crazy shampoos, hair conditioners and face moisturizers.

Keith sat on the unmade bed, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders to be surrounded by as much of Lance as possible. He felt hot wetness falling down his face, tears mixing with snot. He probably looked pathetic and stupid right now, crying over a boy he never confessed to, who probably didn’t even feel the same way.

He didn’t know how long he stayed in Lance’s room but when a knock sounded at the door, he thought it must’ve been hours. Whoever it was, they didn’t wait for his answer as they opened the door and walked in.

Allura looked like death hit her right in the face and then again some more. Sunken eyes over duller marks on her slightly more prominent cheeks, her dress hung over her like it’s out of place and she was shaking ever so slightly.

She walked over and sat next to him. She didn’t move to hug him or make effort at conversation.

“I shouldn’t have let him go alone with Shiro. We shouldn’t have split in the first place.” Her voice was way too small for the usually strong princess. “This was an important mission and a dangerous one, we never split for those. I agreed to Shiro’s suggestion to split because we finally stopped fighting and I was scared we would go back if we disagreed on this. And Lance said he wanted to be with Shiro and Shiro backed him up so I didn’t question it.”

She was looking at her intertwined fingers in her lap, too focused on them to notice the tears that made their way down her face.

Keith tried to reassure her but he couldn’t produce a sound to voice out anything. He thought he was a bit more used to the idea of death; he was in a war after all and had lost fellow soldiers at the Blade but Lance seemed so alive and animated in his memories that he never thought that death could catch on to _him_. He wanted to wail, scream, kick, punch and hit someone all at the same time. He wanted to find out who did this and rip their heart out like his was when Lance’s stopped beating.

He will never introduce Lance to his mother or, as he imagined in his dreams all those on the whale planet, play with Spear as Lance would have loved to. He talked so openly about having a million siblings and with that came dogs and cats and birds. Lance’s love for animals was expressed every time they landed on any earth-like planets.

It killed him inside to think of lance in the term of ‘was’ as he seemed so present in his life.

Allura looked at him.

“I am sorry you were not here for any of this. I heard you found your mother, I am so happy for you.”

A few more seconds passed.

“Thank you so much for your input on Lotor. He is being detained in a cell in the lower floors of the castle. I have personally provided your mother and Romelle with rooms for both of them in our guest bedrooms and… Spear? wouldn’t leave your mother’s side so he is staying with her. You could bring him here whenever you want.”

She didn’t question the fact that he was in Lance’s bedroom or his unusual reaction to the news or the fact that he was practically hugging Lance’s blanket as if it was a lifeline. Without waiting for his answer she stood up to the door, before leaving she added.

“You have been here for a few hours, if you were wondering, and dinner is in an hour but I think everyone might eat in their own space; to grieve on their without anyone watching.”

“When did it happen exactly?” His voice was hoarse from all those hours crying.

“Three days, according to our castle systems. We didn’t take a mission since and no one attempted to talk to either Red or Blue Lion.”

She left straight after that.

He stayed still for a few more minutes before he attempted to move on his own with the blanket still wrapped tightly around his shoulders. His muscles were stiff and his head started to pound from crying.

Keith made his way down the halls, now with a polar opposite feeling than this morning, to the hangers. He took his time and didn’t rush himself feeling sick thinking about the possibility of taking Red again; the memory of Lance worried about the one too many paladin idea ages ago and Keith promising him things to work out played in his mind. He never thought of this. Anything but this.

He took a deep breath and opened the door to the hanger. He was greeted with an agony filled roar. The feeling of pure sadness and sorrow washing over him as Red connected fully with his mind. He felt Red’s guilt and anger at himself for not doing anything to help Lance, the phantom feeling of how fast everything happened increasing the confusion tenfold.

He walked closer to Red. The particle barrier fell and the jaw opened to the cockpit. He all but tiptoed in, afraid to jostle anything from the last time Lance was in here. He couldn’t get himself to sit on the pilot seat so he sat on the floor. Keith knew he probably looked like an out of place bundle of blankets in the corner of the cockpit but he didn’t care at all.

He closed his eyes and thought of a blue-eyed freckled boy with tanned skin and brown curls. At least he knew no one could rob him of dreaming.

**Author's Note:**

> So after the two years Keith spent with his mom alone, he developed a better reaction to everything. Old Keith would've yelled and acted brashly but this new Keith keeps everything well inside, he knows what to let and how to let it out.
> 
> To send any prompts @no-i-didnt-notice-im-short Ask me :)  
> Don't forget to comment and leave Kudos ❤


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